What's in the name : Joe

Hello!

I thought I'd change the style of posting and write about how the dogs of Dog Woods came to Dog Woods and got their names.

Joe was the first dog to make Dog Woods his home ... long before the Pack came to be. He was 5 months old when he arrived. The minute he was let loose from his travelling crate he romped about Dog Woods like it's always been his home. His breeders called him Joe and so the name stuck - with some variations over the years. He's usually 'Joe-ee' when he gets called for dinner or a game of 'fetch' ... but 'Joe!' when he's in trouble. He also goes by Joey with his other best human friend - the Vet.

Like all puppies, he was a mischevious little fellow - who'd chew through things that he was not suppose to chew ... from the telephone, to furniture ... and was always up for a game - at all hours. Joe's also our miracle pup who survived Parvovirus (we're told is lethal to the Rottweiller breeds) and came back after a couple weeks of intensive care at the Vet keen on making up for lost play time!

Although Joe doesn't chew through furniture and household appliances, he's chewing of his toys have gotten him into more trouble - which explains why he's such best friends with the Vet!

Eager to please, Joe not only understands simply commands (verbal or hand signals) like 'sit', 'stay', 'down', 'shake', 'come', 'enough' ... he also understand simple sentences like 'where's your ball Joe-y?' and that would set him on a sniffing search for his ball or ' Can't reach it Joe-ee, can you get that for me?'Joe has also learnt to open doors (from his own crate to the doors in the house) with his paws on his own - we figured it came from watching us humans.

Since they docked his tail when he was a pup, we can't really read his tail cues but Joe-ee makes up for it with his body language, facial expression and range of barks. When his ball is out of reach - in the trees or under the cars or sometimes he'd thrown the ball in sitting room when he's outside ... he'd romp up to the spot, sniff enthusiastically and look at your expectantly and then back to where the toy lies (even if its out of sight). It's almost as if he's saying wordlessly with a big grin on his face, 'Here! Here! I found it! Get it for me please!'

If you're a little distracted, he'd 'holler' to help you along...not the usual ferocious Rottweiller growls but more of a 'Wooah!' and it gets more and more persistent when you choose to ignore him. Translate that into English, that probably goes along the lines of 'Oi! Over here!! Here! Here! (Stop dawdling!)'

So that's ol' Joe who's now four (in human years). Who's as rambuctious as ever - insisting on going for walks and carrying his precious ball about. He is however, taking a little longer to get back to his energetic self, after his second surgery ... but uncannily enough, like all Dog Woods Pack, he'd go about Dog Woods wanting to 'shake paws' with his human friends, like a proper little gentledog (though he isn't exactly that little ...) 'How do you dooo?? How do you dooo?'

And that's another one of Joe's self-taught tricks.